


A Little Gold Coin

by night_street



Category: Start-Up (Korea TV), StartUp (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:21:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29231469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/night_street/pseuds/night_street
Summary: This is canon-compliant up to episode 5. HJP focused. Dalmi-Dosan, but not in this chapter. Credit to callantry for constructive criticism.
Kudos: 10





	A Little Gold Coin

It’s nice to see Alex again though he usually avoids former partners. It’s simply been long enough since their breakup that no trace of awkwardness is felt, simply a sense of familiarity. He’s more or less the same, having decided to keep the facial hair Jipyeong had always hated. It’s as sleazy-looking in real life as it is in the instagram photos he pretends he’s not scrolling through. That’s a pointless exercise that makes him wonder if he’d be more successful if he had chosen to stay in San Francisco, or if he’d still be the same person but with shittier fashion sense. It does, however, answer many questions that he’d like to ask (have you neutered Tim Tam yet, yes), prefer not to (are you married, 2 girlfriends and what was probably a sugar baby later, the answer is no), and never wondered (Crossfit is indeed life-changing; hot yoga gives you 10 more IQ points!). 

Alex is cordial and professional at the Sandbox, offering Jipyeong nothing but a handshake before they sit down to grade the baby startups. But he lingers conspicuously in the meeting room after all the other judges leave. Jipyeong fingers a piece of his hair that’s come loose despite the pomade and waits. 

“You look fluffier. Fatter.” Of course Alex’s first words are about his weight. 

“I started eating rice again. I hated low-carb.”

“Rice or tteokbokki?” Alex smiles. “Anyway, it’s not a bad change. Let’s go to Gotgan. I have a reservation for 7pm.”

“You made a reservation for two?” Alex has always been overly confident, but that’s his charm. 

“If you say no, I’ll ask Dongchun.”

Jipyeong considers him, looking almost exactly the way he did when Ms Yoon first introduced them 5 years ago. She’s always been able to look right into him and see what he wanted. As much as he respects her, he’s never wanted to tell her that her matchmaking attempt worked. Nothing he does today will have the tiniest effect on the future. All that’s in the past. All that’s waiting for him are Yeongsil and his big silent bed. So he gathers his notes into his satchel and fishes out the keys. 

“Let’s take my car.”

“Let’s take the subway. It’s not far and we’ll probably get drunk.”

__

They stay sober. While getting drunk is fun, Jipyeong’s most regrettable moments (bar one that has surfaced intermittently for the last fifteen years) have all occurred when he was intoxicated (crying at a class KTV when Mrs Choi’s favourite song came on, dancing to Wonder Girls in front of a girlfriend’s parents). Staying sober is for the best. 

Alex makes some noises about heading back to his hotel room. They both know he doesn’t mean it. 

“I want to show you my new place,” Jipyeong says when they’re halfway there. He’s forgotten how private the sidewalks can be at night, cars on one side, the river on the other, blanketed in the dark. “It’s bigger than the one I had before I went to America.” Waves of headlights wash over them, illuminating Alex’s face before dipping them back into darkness. Everyone is rushing somewhere that only they think is important. 

“I’d be surprised if apartments could be any smaller.”

“They’re always getting smaller.” Jipyeong jostles against him to avoid a woman on a bicycle. Alex puts his arm around him and doesn’t let go. In San Francisco this is what couples do. In Seoul they’re just old friends. Skinship, being a mentor, being a sunbae--these are all great excuses for what Jipyeong really wants to do. Even through two shirts and a lined blazer his body wants Alex’s body. 

They walk in silence though the lobby, past the doorman whose chief qualification is knowing when not to look and float skywards in the lift. 

\--

“We have to take our shoes off, I just want you to know. You can leave them over there. Yeongsil, lights please.” The lights flicker on, Yeongsil is clearly having a good day. 

“You know, I don’t let people wear shoes in my house either… That’s not Alexa.”

“It’s Yeongsil, it’s an AI speaker. It’s one of Ms Yoon’s more promising startups. It’s… more interesting than Alexa.” Jipyeong says, taking off his jacket and leaving it on the table. “It told me you were coming last week.”

“No, no, I told you that I was coming.”

“Yeah, but before I got your email. He tells fortunes too and he told me someone from my past was coming.”

“Everyday you meet someone from your past. And you shouldn’t let it listen to everything you do. It’s going to get hacked.” 

“Astrology is in, everyone is going to love that feature,” Jipyeong shrugs. “Nothing I do here is worth any money, they can just hack my bank accounts.”

“You’re not paranoid enough for someone who works in tech.” Alex says, as he almost fondles Yeongsil. 

“I’m actually trying to reduce my paranoia.” Jipyeong takes Yeongsil from Alex and stuffs him under the jacket. “Does that make you feel better?”

“No.” Alex continues to touch the other things in his apartment without permission. “Is every photo here of yourself? I know you don’t have family photos but that’s so vain. You should’ve kept some of the climbing guys or at least something to remind you of me.” 

“The internet is filled with pictures of you. Anyway I still have the Grandpa Rudin you lent me, it’s more useful.”

“Did you really finish it?”

“I just wanted to know why everyone complains about it.”

“Well, now you know I guess. If you liked it don’t tell me.” Alex has moved on to the cardboard sign that proclaims Jipyeong the 2001 winner of the Inter High Schools Investment Competition brushing a finger over the scratch mark Tim Tam made on it before Jipyeong decided it would be safer in his closet. “I like the lamps. Are you into art now?”

“The seller had it staged, I just decided to buy it the way it was. I think it looks very cohesive.” 

“So that’s why it looks like no one lives here. It’s like you don’t have any stuff.”

“No, I have the plants and I keep the EXO and Apink merch in the walk-in closet, it’s too personal to have it out here.”

“Red Velvet is better. I wish it weren’t so bloody creepy to be an uncle fan.”

Alex is still the only man with whom he can talk about Eunji and Kyungsoo and not feel dirty. He’s stumbled upon Dongchun’s Twitter (which is, in his own defense, a fascinating read) and knows too much about his deep love for TWICE. There is something a little unsettling about ajusshi fans, even if he is one himself. 

“I think there’s something more interesting we can do here.” he takes the sign and puts it back on the top shelf. “I haven’t been laid in 6 months. I’m going to burst.”

“Couldn’t you have picked someone up at a nightclub?” Alex is smiling in such a familiar way; they both know this old dance. 

“They’re full of university students.” Jipyeong says while helping Alex out of his jacket, which surprisingly, is only GAP. “You smell like metal.” 

“It’s Sartorial, remember? From Penhaligon’s? It’s got that magnesium note.” 

“You still haven’t finished it?” Jipyeong bought it as a gift while in London for him. It was so long ago, almost like a dream. He’s had dreams, whenever he’s been alone for too long, of undressing another person, but he can never remember what happens afterwards. The dream-person’s shirt has no smell, no trace of sweat. He slips Alex’s shirt off his shoulders. No undershirt as expected. 

“Nope. I bought another bottle. It’s different from all the other perfumes. It doesn’t just smell like tonka bean.” He slips a finger over Jipyeong’s mouth, smearing his summer lip balm before dipping inside and scratching his gums lightly with a fingernail. “Your mouth is as lovely as you are horrible. Have you learned anything since we split up?”

“Test me,” Jipyeong says.

The only light in the bedroom is light pollution from the city below. It’s still more than enough to see by, despite the fact that Jipyeong’s night vision has gone to shit from more than a decade spent staring at a computer screen. 

Lying on his back with his knees apart he’s completely exposed. It’s tempting to pull Alex on top of him but he also wants to be seen. Alex’s pale face is unreadable. He takes the facial moisturizer Jipyeong had hastily left on the nightstand in the morning, slathering it on his hands and easing a finger into him. 

“Alex, that’s Sisley. It’s two hundred thousand won.” Jipyeong means it in a lighthearted way, but it comes out like a whine. He can feel Alex’s rock climbing calluses, like all the wisdom in him made visible, probing him in the most private of places.

“I think my sexual services are worth much more than that.” Alex kisses his kneecap and introduces a second finger. “Put your legs on my shoulders.” 

With more difficulty than Jipyeong would like to admit he does so. “Go easy on me. I don’t do yoga anymore.”

“I’ll try to control myself,” Alex says dryly, but there’s a little hitch in his voice that gives him away. 

Alex works his way in, mouthing along his jaw until he finds the spot behind Jipyeong’s ear that makes him shudder. “You actually remember that. What else do you remember?” 

“That you’re obsessed with your treadmill when you could run outside. That this spot is sensitive.” Alex licks the shell of his ear and pinches his inner thighs. In retaliation he scrapes a nipple hard with his thumbnail. 

Unexpectedly Alex comes right away. He must have been going through a dry spell as well. 

He contemplates going to the bathroom to clean up the mess between his legs but moving is too much trouble. Jipyeong wants to live in this moment forever, where it’s quiet and things don’t change. It’s seductive to think that the man lying next to him does too. 

Finally Alex gets up and returns with beer. They drink and share the silence. 

\--

He dozes off without meaning to and wakes up to the sound of engines. Alex is playing F1. He must have gone through his closet and found the playstation Jipyeong has been trying and failing to quit. 

“You’ve got some very impressive beard burn on your jaw. ” Alex says as he overtakes Rosberg. He’s chosen the Singapore circuit. Onscreen the city is cloaked in darkness, the only thing that exists is a winding silver road and cars driving nowhere at 300 miles an hour. 

He leans over and takes the controller from Alex, crashing into a Ferrari before spinning out into the barriers. “Are you bragging?”

“No, I’m just being honest.” 

It’s a strange mirror of their early days when he would wake up to Alex on a coding binge, the clacking of the keyboard starting and stopping with his thoughts, the weak light of his laptop throwing huge shadows on the wall. 

Jipyeong rolls forward on his belly; he wants to see Alex properly. “What do you like about Samsan Tech?” 

“It’s not perfect, but it’s a good attempt that builds on existing knowledge. Developing machine vision has been a 50 year project. Nam Dosan can push it further.” 

“And that’s your professional opinion?” 

“What else would it be based on?” Alex fixes him with a look. 

“Well. People say that you can’t be emotional as an investor. But how can it not be emotional?”

“Jipyeong. I’m excited in the way that I am when I see something beautiful. My opinion isn’t just based on their fraud recognition app, but on their CODA submission. I still can’t believe you’ve gotten so old without learning to read code.” 

“I can code.”

“I don’t mean using OCaml to code a model.”

“There’s only so many hours in a day.” He rolls over and watches the dead light from the screen play across the ceiling. “I can always ask an expert.”

“I’m going back to America after Demo Day, you know. As fun as it would be to stay here and pretend we don’t know each other I have a job I have to get back to.” 

“I meant other experts.” 

“There are none like me.” 

“Well. Talking to you is more fun.” He tangles his fingers with Alex, rubbing the back of his palm with his thumb. 

“Tell me about the last two years. You’re not still posting loss porn on Wallstreetbets are you?” 

“I just did. Lost fifty thousand dollars on Apple puts.” 

“You’re going to end up living in a corn dog stand again.”

“Actually, I won’t. I didn’t tell you yet but I found her last month. She’s in a food truck now. There’s nowhere I can sleep.” 

“Can I meet her?” Alex perks up. He’s always loved a good story. “I want to know what you were like as a kid.”

“I’ll see about it.” Jipyeong can’t risk Alex letting Dalmi know about the secret web between them. As much as Alex is a friend they’re also professional rivals, both on the hunt for the next unicorn. 

“When you left my parents were so worried you would be alone. We shouldn’t have worried.” 

“I can take care of myself Alex.”

“Forgive me but I’ve always doubted that.”

\--

“I have some clothes in your size. They’re the ones I was wearing in San Francisco.” Jipyeong says as he rummages around in the walk-in closet.

“Still trying to get back into them?”

“I’ve given up, but they’re too good to throw away. You can take them with you when you go back.” It’s nice stuff: Band of Outsiders, Diesel, the Givenchy jacket he bought to celebrate shorts on Black Monday. 

“This will really stand out in Silicon Valley.” Alex says, trying on a shirt. “You really did not look like a VC over there.”

“I hate how all men there treat clothes as a form of wearable contraception. No one wants to fuck a guy wearing a fleece vest.”

“There’s more to a man than his clothes, Jipyeong.”

“Yeah, like his bank account.”

“Precisely.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Grandpa Rudin is the nickname for a functional analysis textbook. Functional is taught late in undergrad or as a postgrad course. 
> 
> 2\. If you haven't guessed, Tim Tam is a cat. Imagine him as a large gray tabby manx with a short tail and a bad attitude. 
> 
> 3\. I made references to being an uncle fan because KSH talked about being an uncle fan of Dahyun/TWICE. Also the guys on 2D1N seem to know their girl groups very well. Kyungsoo's an easter egg--because of their work on 100 days my prince. There’s a cute gif of the wrap party that you should see.


End file.
